Trump Says Cusma Renewal Is Not on His List
Donald Trump said Wednesday he is not looking to renew cusma, the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement that replaced NAFTA. For companies that move cars, lumber or energy across North American borders, that leaves the three-country trade framework tied to one president’s next move.
“Well, I’m not looking to renew it,” Trump said. He added, “I made the deal and the primary reason I made the deal is that NAFTA was the worst trade deal I’ve ever seen.”
Trump’s NAFTA Break With Cusma
“Yeah. And I made it better. But I had the right to terminate,” Trump said. The line matters because cusma is not a side agreement; it is the replacement for NAFTA, which had governed free trade between Canada, the United States and Mexico since 1992.
“I don’t know that I’m going to redo it because, to be honest with you,” Trump said. That leaves the agreement in a holding pattern around a single question: whether the deal that structures three-way trade stays intact or faces a rewrite on terms Trump says he wants to control.
Canada and Mexico Trade Deficits
“We don’t need anything to Canada has, we don’t need anything that Mexico has, but they need everything that we have, and they have to treat us better,” Trump said. He also said, “With Mexico and Canada, we have trade deficits.”
“We should have surpluses with them,” Trump said. His comment points to the leverage he sees in the relationship: he framed the issue not as preserving the current rules, but as using access to the U.S. market to push for better terms.
Cars, Lumber, Energy
“We don’t need their cars. We don’t need their lumber. We don’t need their energy. We don’t need anything,” Trump said. Those are the goods he singled out, and they are the clearest clue in his remarks about which cross-border industries could face the most scrutiny if he decides not to renew cusma.
For businesses and workers tied to those flows, the immediate takeaway is simple: the agreement’s status now depends on a president who said he has the right to terminate it and who is not committing to renew it. That keeps trade terms between the three countries exposed to a political decision rather than a routine rollover.
